HighestWelfare.Humane.Assured.GoodPractices.Vegetarian. Regenerative.Flexitarian.Lies...
What is the difference between No Welfare, High Welfare, and Highest Welfare when they all require animals to die? Only human comfort, NONE protect the actual animals. The most humane, ethical, and honest Webster-defined "welfare" is NOT exploiting animals - not using, not wearing, not eating, not killing - animals. The only meaningful position is vegan, everything else is just how humans euphemize animals' required suffering and violent deaths: no human exploits animals because they honestly believe that NOT exploiting animals is UNethical or INhumane.
UPDATE:
From guardian.co.uk
Iran stoning woman offered asylum by Brazil’s president Lula :
Offer raises hopes Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, will be spared
Click HERE
Posted by Ximena Ramirez
From Care2
Like the international community, over at Care2 we have been following the tragic story of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a mother of two sentenced to death by stoning in Iran for allegedly committing adultery – very closely.
It wasn’t long ago that our very own Judy Molland delivered some bright news in the case – Ashtiani had been rescued from her stoning sentence – but since then Iran’s judiciary has changed her sentence to execution by hanging because they now say she committed murder.
Documents detailing the stoning sentence, however, make it clear that Ashitani was convicted of adultery – a crime she only admitted to after receiving 99 lashes, a crime she later retracted completely.
New details, however, reveal that after the lashings her case was reopened when a court in Tabriz suspected her of murdering her husband. She was acquitted of murder by the court soon after and the adultery charges were reinstated. After review the death penalty sentence was handed down for adultery – not murder.
So why are the murder charges coming up again?
Call this number to the White House and give them your thoughts:
(202) 456-1111
9-5 EST, M-F
Visit the White House comment webform and let them know how you feel: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Equine Advocacy Examiner
By Maureen Harmonay
An independent observer who recently returned from scouting the Herd Area in north Elko County, Nevada where the Owyhee portion of the Tuscarora Gather took place has photographic evidence that one of the wild horses appears to have been driven to his or her death over rocky cliffs, presumably by Cattoor, the BLM’s helicopter contractor.
Though no such fatality was ever reported by the BLM, Katie Fite, a Biodiversity Director for the Western Watersheds Project, was able to document it during her visit to the area on July 25th and 26th. Her photograph depicting a horse lying dead on the rocks near the Owyhee River was submitted in support of legal motions against the BLM on the Tuscarora matter, the most recent of which was filed on Friday, July 30th.
Ms. Fite explained: “I noted evidence that horses had been driven down the river bed and held in temporary corrals. Also noted a horse that appears to have been driven onto the rocks.”
Ms. Fite’s photographs were taken at the South Fork of the Owyhee River, north of the Owyhee roundup trap site, where she observed four places at which wild horses have access to water, contrary to the BLM’s prior assertions that because no water was available to the mustangs in this Herd Area (HA), an “emergency rescue gather” was justified and necessary.
Manipulating wildlife conservation for special interests
By Katherine McGill
Urban Wildlife Examiner
Taxation without representation is magnificently exemplified within our wildlife management system. Like most, I once believed in the suggestive concept of “wildlife conservation” and “preservation”. Make no mistake – an ample supply of game for the next hunting season is the only thing being conserved and preserved. These terms are officially oxymoron’s.
On July 23, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, announced the appointment of 18 people to the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council to give advice about recreational activities associated with wildlife and habitat conservation.
Whatever diversity had been described in soliciting nominations must have been forgotten. Instead, like the majority of our state wildlife agencies governing Boards, all 18 of Salazar’s and Vilsack’s appointees to this Council have very strong ties to hunting, wildlife and shooting sports. Once again, non-sporting wildlife stakeholders have absolutely no representation!
This “Heritage” Council (yet another hunting agency, let’s call it what it is) is an official advisory group under the Federal Advisory Committee Act that will help to promote and preserve America’s hunting heritage for future generations.
Promote? Remember, our state wildlife agencies MUST grow hunting to compete against each other for over $340 million dollars of our gun tax, of which 100% is essentially allotted for them (despite hunters are 4% of our population and 60% of gun owners do not even hunt!) As the number of hunters decline their challenges increase. Desperate, biased management lends to competing at any cost to all the stakeholders, our environment, and the wildlife (endangered species as well).
Like greedy mongers they continue to buy more land, and with your money they will clear-cut and manipulate the lands for select (consumptive) game animals, leaving other native animals out in the cold. Then they will manipulate hunting seasons and regulations to artificially increase the populations of consumptive animals, and hire companies to count them each year. These lands and refuges are essentially now off limits to you, unless you want to hunt there. You will also pay for hefty ongoing maintenance expenses.
The only creature safe in a wildlife refuge is the hunter.
Posted by: Beth Buczynski
Care2
When faced with the almost insurmountable tasks of cleaning up the mess BP created in the Gulf, most people feel helpless. Teenagers and kids outraged by the injustices much of the Gulf’s wildlife will have to endure as a result are often surprised that adults are doing so little to help.
After a conversation with his dad about wanting to do something about the oil spill, teenager Matt Pierce decided to take matters into his own hands.
The Florida teen started a non-profit called Teenagers Care to raise funds for animals suffering from this disaster. This one spark of an idea has spread in such a short time that, in less than two weeks, the organization has raised almost $5,000.
“It’s hard to see majestic animals, such as the Brown Pelican, in such a state of distress and not do anything,” Pierce said. “I hope that through my fundraising efforts and by raising awareness with teens and adults that we can save the lives of many animals.”
The world’s most important pie chart
Letter to Science for Peace …
By Paul York
Cruelty-Free.org
It was earlier noted on this list that if factory farms account for 18%, then 82% percent of the global GHGs do not come from them. But please take note that livestock / factory farms, at 18%, are in fact the # 1 source of GHGs in the world, out of nine categories of sources! They therefore warrant more attention by climate change activists than has hitherto occurred.
1. Livestock = 18%
2. Industry = 15%
3. Transport = 13.5%
4. Energy = 13% Note: this is issue which ENGOs give most attention.
5. Residential buildings = 10%
6. Deforestation = 10%
7. Commercial buildings = 6%
8. Waste = 4%
9. Other = 4.5%
Source: the “Livestock’s Long Shadow” UN report on global emissions, referred to earlier: http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.HTM
Moreover, not all GHGs are equal. Most of the methane in the total comes from the first source, and this is many times more potent than CO2 – which is perhaps why livestock ranks first.
So here is my critical question: how can ENGOs (eg. Greenpeace, Sierra Club, WWF, Pembina, etc) focus almost entirely on replacing fossil fuels with renewables when it accounts for just 13% or 4th place on the chart?
Or another way of putting it: how can they pay so little attention to factory farming, the single largest sources of GHGs out of 9 categories? I find this astounding, though not inexplicable, if we look at the hesitance of even many environmentalists to change their diets.
Given that we have a choice in diet, it could be argued that choice can be considered the most important moral choice facing us as a species at this time in history.
Let’s look at the obstacles and solutions to the issue raised by the chart, briefly.
From Straight from the Horse’s Heart
By R.T. Fitch
At the conclusion of this commentary is inserted a current press release announcing that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is extending the public comment period for the “New Direction” the BLM is taking with the Wild Horse and Burro program for an additional thirty days. A quick look at the statement’s face value and you would think it is a victory for the voting public, more time for the taxpayers of this land to comment on how the BLM and DOI have burned millions and millions of dollars for absolutely no reason (not discounting how many tens of thousands of wild horses they have allowed to go to slaughter and kill). And now the latest ploy is to ship, at your expense, western wild horses to leased acreage (Salazoos) in the mid-west where they will be sterilized and we, the public, can slowly watch our wild horses die off into only a memory, never to be seen again. And YOU get to pay for it all while it is FREE for them to stay where they are rightfully and lawfully located.
But under closer inspection it quickly becomes apparent that this extension is not driven by the goodness of Bob Abbey’s heart nor is it viewed as an opportunity handed to the public so that they can further cast their honest votes. NO; this is a direct and manipulated attempt to give the anti-horse factions an opportunity to further organize and invite the “horse-eaters” to continue their impotent attempts to pollute the public’s mind with additional misinformation.
The BLM knows that their broken policies and procedures not only do not work but that the bulk of America is on to their dirty little game. They are not giving the likes of you and me, the ones who pay their cushy salaries, more time to comment, no…a group from Wyoming has been pushing for the extension and the members of that group are no friends to horses.
In an effort to be fair and balanced, unlike the BLM who cannot even post correct numbers, we posted two articles last week on a Wyoming delegation that wanted the comment time extended.
Let’s just peel a few layers off from that smelly onion and take a look at the members of this delegation. Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) is anti-wild horse, pro-horse slaughter and the same is true of Sen. Enzi (R-WY) and Sen. Barrasso (R-WY). If you check their voting records and prior comments they all wanted the predatory and bloody business of horse slaughter brought to their beautiful state of Wyoming. (Ain’t technology great?)
To read the rest of this entry, please visit Straight from the Horse’s Heart by clicking HERE
Editor’s Note: Suffering and death is inhumane, regardless of spin, definition, solicitous rhetoric, silly images, or fluffy music. Please don’t fool yourself, the only beneficiary to “humane” monikers are humans, who praise themselves with self-congratulatory righteousness while raising a fork of death to their mouths. And while that may seem critical, what other response could be considered appropriate while billions of animals suffer unimaginable horror? An animal used is an animal abused, the pain and exploitation exists even if you close your mind and believe frivolous ads boasting pastoral scenes of frolicking, joyous animals who live long lives in comfort and die peacefully in their sleep. This is false, sixty BILLION animals are murdered every year. They suffer. They feel pain. They experience fear. They are slaughtered. And that can NEVER be humane. SL
Please watch the slideshow, following which is the “Silencing the Lambs” statement and response from James LaVeck and Humane Myth.
On “Silencing the Lambs”
As taken from Humane Myth
Thank you to all of you who have expressed support for our releasing “Silencing the Lambs.” We found making this video a painful, though unavoidable, matter of conscience. We’ve been heartened by the level of response it has generated, which has been mostly positive.
Our goal in making this video was to spark discussion and rational debate on matters of great importance to the animals’ cause, matters that are too often being discussed and decided by a handful of people behind closed doors. Since it was released, several people have asked me to respond to criticisms made by Farm Sanctuary, one of the two organizations mentioned by name in the video. We believe that some of the things being said by Farm Sanctuary are inaccurate, and equally important, run the risk of shifting the discussion in a far less productive direction. We request that those on all sides of these issues avoid making wholesale judgments and/or directing harsh language toward any individual or organization. It is far more helpful to use this as an opportunity to encourage organizations to be accountable to the values they have publicly stated.
For the last several years, many of us have watched with growing concern as the language, affairs and public message of animal advocacy organizations and the animal-using industry have become increasingly intertwined. The public understandably becomes confused, and the industry takes advantage of this confusion. For example, an animal farmer named Joel Salatin, famous for slaughtering chickens in the movie Food, Inc., recently said in the media that he is in the “healing industry” and called his farm a “sanctuary”. Contributing to this confusion, some animal protection organizations now use romanticized imagery of animals on bucolic “humane” farms which can easily give the public the impression that voting for a given legislative initiative or purchasing the “right” kind of animal products will lead to a life for exploited animals not much different than that at a sanctuary. Many of us working in animal advocacy feel that this trend is disastrous, and represents an ongoing victory for the meat industry in its effort to co-opt animal advocacy by steadily shifting the public dialogue away from whether or not it is right to use and kill animals to what is the right way to use and kill animals.
We have now reached a point where serving meat and other animal products to raise money to “protect” farm animals is something that the largest animal advocacy organization in the US will not only promote, but do so using the photo of an individual animal over the phrase “Respect our Food” on an invitation with their logo. We feel the time has come to ask ourselves, how much is too much? How deeply must animal advocacy organizations become enmeshed in the affairs of those who make profits from using and killing animals before more of us stand up to object?
In 2005, when executives of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) met behind closed doors with egg producers to collaborate on the promotion of “cage-free” eggs, leading industry attendees to reportedly anticipate a “business bonanza”, was that going too far? In that same year, when several nationally-known animal advocacy organizations, including two sanctuaries, participated in the development of Whole Foods’ new “compassionate” standards for using and killing animals, was that going too far? When 17 animal protection organizations publicly endorsed these standards in a letter widely distributed by the Whole Foods PR department, was that going too far?
OAU is having a contest: NOT Everyone Loves Marineland
From Bob Timmons, Ocean Activists United
Or copy/paste the following address into your browser: http://www.bobtimmons.org/oceanactivistsunited.htm
If you are a person who “Does not Love Marineland” then you are the perfect participant for this contest and why not share your reason or reasons to everyone and possibly win a prize while you’re at it!
Please sign petition HERE
To participate in this contest you will need to follow a few steps, please visit Bob’s site HERE to determine the rules.
If you have a Facebook account, please visit OAU’s group HERE or the Facebook NOT Everyone Loves Marineland contest page HERE
Visit the Twitter page HERE
From Innocence Project
Late yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill by voice vote creating a national criminal justice commission to examine and potentially reshape the American criminal justice system. This bipartisan panel is a critical step toward addressing the injustices inherent in the system, including the causes of wrongful convictions.
The bill is now pending before the U.S. Senate. Please take one minute and urge your Senators to take a leadership role in ensuring immediate passage of the bill.
Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck praised the House and urged the Senate to pass the legislation quickly “so that comprehensive review and reform of the system can begin in earnest.” Read the Innocence Project press release here.
The bill was initially championed by Senator Jim Webb, who said last night that “this bill will take a long overdue, comprehensive review of our criminal justice system – taking a look at what’s broken and what works. With tonight’s success, I look forward to swift legislative action in the Senate.”
Urge your Senators to ensure that the bill is passed swiftly so we can get to work on a balanced examination of our criminal justice system.
Please click HERE
Or visit: https://secure2.convio.net/ip/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=201
BLM has created an email address so we can send comments via email once more. The sample letter is courtesy IDA (In Defense of Animals) & AWHPC (American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign), please use, modify, or send your own, but use the same subject.
Please BEGIN COPYING FROM “Working Toward Sustainable Management of America’s Wild Horses and Burros” UNTIL THE VERY END where you enter your name and address.
In other words, copy and paste everything below the ********* until you sign your name and provide your address and send to the email address listed. Thank you!
WHERE TO SEND: wildhorse@blm.gov
SUBJECT: WHB Public Comments
SAMPLE LETTER:
********************************************************************************************
Working Toward Sustainable Management of America’s Wild Horses and Burros
Draft Goals, Objectives and Possible Management Actions
To Whom It Concerns:
Following are my comments on the Department of Interior’s “Wild Horse & Burro Strategy Development Document.”
The current program, which rounds up and removes wild horses and burros by the tens of thousands each year from the Western range, is fiscally unsustainable. For the first time in history, the U.S. government warehouses more wild horses in holding pens and pastures than are left free on the range. America’s wild horses are still waiting for the change that President Obama promised.
In order to put this program on a sustainable track, the BLM must implement an immediate suspension of roundups and shift resources to managing wild horses and burros on the range as Congress intended when it passed the 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act. In the spirit of real reform, I offer my specific comments on the strategy document as follows:
TOPIC: Sustainable Herds
– The concept of sustainable herds is based on arbitrary and artificially low “appropriate management levels” (AMLs), which is based on unfair allocation practices and incomplete, faulty range data, by BLM’s own admission.
– Immunocontraception must be utilized when necessary to control wild horse reproduction and avoid mass roundups and removals.
– I oppose castration and spaying of horses and non-reproducing herds on the range.
– I oppose manipulation of sex ratios to manage herds.
– I support increasing available forage for wild horses through the conversion of livestock grazing allotments.
TOPIC: Preserves
– I urge an immediate moratorium on roundups to prevent creating need for more preserves.
– Preserves must not replace on-the-range management and should only be used to phase out long- and short-term holding. Preserves must be located in Western states.
– Preserves must strive to maintain the social integrity of wild horse herds, allowing horses to live in more natural conditions instead of the current imposition of domestic conditions on horses who are still designated as “wild” under the law.
– I support using the authority the BLM has always had to re-establish wild horse populations in zeroed-out herd areas.
– I support the commitment to not killing horses deemed “excess” and “unadoptable.”
– I support private-public partnerships. BLM must immediately pursue proposals, such as those offered by Madeleine Pickens and Soldier Meadows Ranch/Return to Freedom, to reduce long- and short-term holding.
TOPIC: Treasured Herds
– Congress has already determined that every herd is treasured. I oppose BLM’s proposal to manipulate and micromanage designated herds.
– I support the concept of showcasing certain herds in order to promote awareness of America’s wild horses and burros and the need to protect them.
TOPIC: Adoptions/Private Care
– I oppose any weakening of adoption requirements.
– I oppose financial incentives to increase BLM horse adoptions.
TOPIC: Animal Welfare
– BLM must have complete transparency in all agency operations.
– Interested members of the public must be allowed at all aspects of range monitoring, aerial counts, roundups and all holding facilities. This must not be limited to specific individuals or organizations. Public access must be representational and fair.
TOPIC: Science and Research
– Currently the BLM does not have the science or research needed to manage this program.
-All data gathering (i.e. census, etc.) must be done with independent public observers or with video technology to provide documentation to the public.
– I support a comprehensive review of the program by the National Academy of Sciences – beginning with the scientific/legal basis for the establishment of AMLs, the utilization of on-the-range management options, the environmental assessment process, and operations of BLM as a whole and the field offices.
This Strategy Document is based on a flawed foundation given that the Salazar initiative does not represent the fundamental reform that is needed. While I agree with portions of the initiative, it is premature to forward to Congress.
I urge the BLM to immediately place a moratorium on roundups and schedule public hearings to create a program that upholds the intent of Congress to protect and preserve America’s wild horses and burros.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
________________________________________________________
(first and last name)
_________________________________________________________
(complete mailing address)
RELATED:
Yay! I get to murder animals, cheat people, and rape the land, and nobody can stop me!
In a blatantly disgusting abuse of power, the BLM is killing horses, stealing water, and leaching the land, all while refusing to hear you in a efficient, quick manner. Duplicity and dishonesty are the mottos, and the lack of integrity and equity means YOU lose as well as the animals and the land. Watch this video:
Vodpod videos no longer available.
We only have FIVE days to comply with the special form to save wild horses, anything else will go in file 13. Please go HERE now to find out whom you can call and what you can do to protest! Don’t let them steal your First Amendment, too, it is the ONLY thing that can stop them from the continuous raping of the land and murdering of the animals.
Or copy/paste this link: https://ourcompass.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/salazar-public-can-no-longer-use-email-or-fax-what-you-can-do-horses-need-your-help-telephone-call-three-messages/
Immediate, please sign and send automatic letter HERE
From AAVS
Thanks to your letters, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed H.R. 5566, also known as the Crush Act, by an astounding vote of 416 to 3. This bill aims to wipe out an industry that profits from the maiming and killing of small animals in sexual fetish videos. Now, the bill is expected to come up for a vote in the U.S. Senate. We need your help to make it pass!
As AAVS supporters may know, this spring, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that a 1999 law banning depictions of animal cruelty was unconstitutional. The law’s intent was to ban shocking ‘crush videos’ by making it a crime to traffic in any images where animals are “intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded or killed.” However, the law was recently used to convict Robert Stevens for selling dog fight videos. Stevens brought his case to the Supreme Court, and the Court ruled the law was too broad in scope and violated First Amendment rights to free speech.
Read more…
Calculate Your Carbon Footprint, Two Calculators
**WWF Carbon Footprint Calculator
Worried about your impact on the environment? The way we use the planet’s resources makes up our ecological footprint. Measuring yours takes less than 5 minutes and could set you on a life-changing journey…
Start HERE
Or copy/paste into your browser: http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/
Alternatively, another carbon footprint calculator can be found at The Nature Conservancy by clicking HERE
Carbon Footprint Calculator: What’s My Carbon Footprint?
Inevitably, in going about our daily lives — commuting, sheltering our families, eating — each of us contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change. Yet, there are many things each of us, as individuals, can do to reduce our carbon emissions. The choices we make in our homes, our travel, the food we eat, and what we buy and throw away all influence our carbon footprint and can help ensure a stable climate for future generations.
Use The Nature Conservancy’s carbon footprint calculator to measure your impact on our climate. Our carbon footprint calculator estimates how many tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases your choices create each year. more info
To get started, select the number of people in your home. Then choose whether you want to calculate a carbon footprint for yourself or for your household.
Click HERE
Or copy/paste: http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/
**Thank you to Antonio of Care2 for sharing the WWF Carbon Footprint Calculator, his link can be found HERE
NYC looks to stop spreading bedbug infestations
Editor’s note from Judy’s Ethic’s Committee: Do all living creatures have the right to life? or just the ones that we deem as having a purpose on the planet, or as being un-objectionable.
I would have NO problem in exterminating bed bugs….but what about the people who want to exterminate rattle snakes because they hate them…or stepping on spiders because they are afraid of them..
I wonder if “Pests” come under the “it doesn’t matter – exterminate them” Umbrella
Does the Koran teach that infidels serve no useful purpose on the planet and need to be exterminated?
Like hitler thought the Jews needed exterminating.
Same goes for weeds…I have yard full of “weeds” that are producing flowers with seeds that the birds can eat. (wild thistles) other people would spray them with RoundUp..i say let the weeds live. DO the weeds think we are Nazis?
Same with the wild elderberry bushes..they come up all over my yard….Last summer my neighbor came over to “help” me cut down the elderberry “weeds” .some of these elderberry weeds are 12 feet high and they have beautiful bunches of dark purple berries hanging from them…i LOVE these weeds
Where do we draw the line between what to kill and what not to kill…the ethics committee in my head is semi-active today..One of our FB friends, Paul, pointed out the other day that when Trees are Injured wouldn’t it be much more ethical to call a Tree Surgeon, than to call the Chain Saw/Tree Grinder Company…
So what is it that determines somethings “right” to life? the very fact that it is “alive” and that “right” is inherent within it?
Yahoo News
One of every 15 New Yorkers battled bedbugs last year, officials said Wednesday as they announced a plan to fight the spreading infestation, including a public-awareness campaign and a top entomologist to head the effort.
The bloodsucking pests, which are not known to spread disease but can cause great mental anguish with their persistent and fast-growing infestations, have rapidly multiplied throughout New York and many other U.S. cities in recent years.
Animals Get A Voice In Swiss Politics
Simulposted with:
European Vegetarian and Animal News Alliance (EVANA)
Geneva – Swiss animal lovers have founded a political party to represent the interests of their four-legged friends, Swiss news agency ATS reported on Sunday.
The Animal Party Switzerland was established on Saturday with an economist, a lawyer and the head of the Swiss vegetarian union as founding members, said the agency, quoting Thomas Maerki, who heads the new party.
The party – which plans to contest elections next year – has set up a page on Facebook with the slogan “because animals need a voice,” and a pledge to “represent the interests of animals in politics and the economy”.
Switzerland boasts strict laws protecting animals. It is illegal to flush goldfish alive down a toilet, and owners of some animals such as budgies and hamsters must guarantee that the animals have social companions.
Even sheep and goats must have at least a “visual contact with their fellows”.
Earlier this year, enough signatures were collected to force a referendum on whether abused animals should be assigned lawyers. In the end, the initiative failed to muster a majority of votes.
Swiss Animals Get Political Voice: http://m.news24.com/news24/World/News/Swiss-animals-get-political-voice-20100725
If you have a Facebook account, please consider joining the group : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114335688601237&ref=mf#!/group.php?gid=114335688601237&v=wall&ref=mf
Our Compass 